The present invention relates to cooling device aimed spacers to be used for cooling devices such as cooling bedclothes, cooling seat cushions, cooling mats, cooling chairs, cooling clothes, and cooling shoes, for flowing therethrough ambient air to thereby cool an object body.
As bedclothes for cooling an object body such as at a sleepless summer night, there have been proposed devices for directly cooling the body such as by causing cooled air to flow into a covering futon and/or pillow. For example, covering futons of air flow-through type are filled with coarse cotton materials, or three-dimensional fabrics, for example, so as to flow air through such fillers. Such cotton materials and three-dimensional fabrics act as spacers for flowing air therearound. Namely, members of the covering futon are overlapped with each other via space serving as a flow passage for air. In addition to the aforementioned cotton materials and three-dimensional fabrics, spacers to be used for cooling devices of air flow-through type include continuous-foam sponges and entwined hard fibers.
However, all of the aforementioned spacers only provide narrow gaps for passing air therethrough, thereby resulting in an extremely large viscous drag upon impingement of air onto respective members of the spacer. As such, in order to flow a lot of air through spacers so as to obtain a sufficient cooling effect, it is required to apply a higher pressure to the air. Thus, the conventional cooling devices of air flow-through types require devices for generating a high pressure, thereby resulting in an extra cost as well as various disadvantages due to the high pressure.
The present invention has been carried out in view of the conventional technique circumstances, and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cooling device aimed spacer capable of allowing a lot of air to flow therethrough even by a lower pressure.
To achieve the aforementioned object, the first invention resides in a cooling device aimed spacer to be used in a cooling device which cools a cooling object by flowing, by blowing means, a gas through a substantially flat flow passage formed at.that side of the cooling device which contacts with the cooling object, in which the cooling device aimed spacer serves to form the flow passage and comprises: a plurality of plate-like projecting portions arranged parallel to the gas-flowing direction in a state where the plate-like projecting portions are upstanding in the thickness direction of the flow passage, wherein the plurality of plate-like projecting portions are integrally formed to become physically continuous such that: the width of each of the plate-like projecting portions along a direction perpendicular to the gas-flowing direction is in a range of 0.2 mm to 2 cm when viewed from the thickness direction of the flow passage; and the plate-like projecting portions are formed at a ratio of 0.2 to 5 pieces per 1 cm along the direction perpendicular to the gas-flowing direction when viewed from the thickness direction of the flow passage.
To achieve the above object, the second invention resides in a cooling device aimed spacer to be used in a cooling device which cools a cooling object by flowing, by blowing means, a gas through a substantially flat flow passage formed at that side of the cooling device which contacts with the cooling object, in which the cooling device aimed spacer serves to form the flow passage and comprises: a plurality of column-shaped members arranged in a state upstanding in the thickness direction of the flow passage, wherein the plurality of column-shaped members are integrally formed to become physically continuous such that: the width of each of the column-shaped members along a direction perpendicular to the gas-flowing direction is in a range of 0.2 mm to 1 cm when viewed from the thickness direction of the flow passage; and the column-shaped members are formed at a ratio of 0.1 to 25 pieces per 1 cm2 when viewed from the thickness direction of the flow passage.
To achieve the above object, the third invention resides in a cooling device aimed spacer to be used in a cooling device which cools a cooling object by flowing, by blowing means, a gas through a substantially flat flow passage formed at that side of the cooling device which contacts with the cooling object, in which the cooling device aimed spacer serves to form the flow passage and comprises: a plurality of column-shaped members each having a length component in the thickness direction of the flow passage, and a plurality of connecting members for connecting one ends of the plurality of column-shaped members, wherein the plurality of column-shaped members are integrally formed to become physically continuous such that: the width of each of the column-shaped members along a direction perpendicular to the gas-flowing direction is in a range of 0.2 mm to 1 cm when viewed from the thickness direction of the flow passage; and the column-shaped members are formed at a ratio of 0.1 to 25 pieces per 1 cm2 when viewed from the thickness direction of the flow passage.